< 



IN TME ISLAKB W BALL im 



It is the bufinefs of the Brakma/ii to keep this reckoning '-andto 

 :adjufl this calculation, which is folar, to the iunar year. It is a fun^iors 

 of practical importance as the occiipations of the hufbandman are 

 di reeled by thefe meteorological fubdivifions of the year. Each fea« 

 Ion is appropriated to a particular employment, which the huiband- 

 man never commences till methodically warned to it by the Brak" 

 mians : what the Brahman does on Bali, the Mahomedan priefl performs 

 043 Jaxxi, 



The days of the week are, I may prefume, evidently Indian, and Fcp 

 are the names of the iigns of the zodiac : both are inferted in the 

 catalogue* of Kawi words, that the Sanfcrit fcholar may be enabled to 

 determine. Copper cups have been found in numbers on Java> 

 with the Hindu figns of the zodiac engraven upon them ; and I dico- 

 vered at T<2^^/^ in the diftri6l ot Cher ibof?, a. Kawi manufcript in the 

 ancient character, which among many other Hindu figures^ had the 

 f]gns of thet zodiac diftind'ly depided upon ir. 



The Hindus of the oriental illands are not without fome knowledge 

 of chronology. The. four fabulous eras of Indian chronology are 

 known to them under the following names : Kdrta.yoga, Treta-yoga^ 

 Dwapara-yoga and Kali-yoga. The duration of each period is not 

 fpecified ; but that affigned to the whole, differs, in a moft remarkable 



•degree, from the account of the yogas given by thhifndian chronolo- 



— -^ -^ • 1^ — >—>« 



* This catalogue has nit been received by the Socieiy. — iS'oie by the Secretary. 



\ This performance appears to be <nn aRronomieal treatife. It is written with black and red Ink, upon a ftrong 

 paper, almoft lefeinbling parchment. The mi^nufcript confifta of feveral long flips of papers folded zigzayi 

 -snd each compartment forming q diftinft pMge in the way that 1 have fern Bmman and Slamef- manufciip'Sj 

 writtrni T hii is the only ancient manufcript thnt has to my kno\vlcdg« ever been ilifcovered on 7<7t;iz by 

 Europeans. Of the liillory of it netting was known, nor was thcie any one in that part of ih; ifland 

 %vh«'couid read a fyllableof it. It w;is not the Icfs legirded en that accoanr. The pe >ple of the d-.ftri& 

 •viewed it with fupcrftiiioui veneration, ;ind no confuicfaiion would induce ihem to part wiih it. Mony and 

 -a valuable Koran were ofFe'cd in vain. The chief, in whofe poflrfTion it w;ij, :i(Tured me with much fiin^'liciiyj 

 4hat ihc crt'jis would fail> and fjraine and pellilence aflnil the land) if the huly icijc (juitted it. 



